A 39-year-old man was found dead in Wilmington's Hilltop neighborhood early Friday.

The victim, who police identified as Phillip Chapman of Wilmington, is the city's 13th fatality by gunfire this year. This is the first homicide in the city since July 18 when 50-year-old Sean Spencer was gunned down as he tried to save his son from the gunman, according to a relative.

Gene Green spoke to another man on Friday, a few yards from where a memorial of candles had been set up for Chapman. He was in bed when he heard six gunshots earlier that morning.

"It sounded like it was close," Green said as it began to rain Friday. "So I was like 'I ain't going to the window until I see some blue and red lights out there.' "

After police arrived, Green said he walked out of his house on Van Buren and Conrad streets, but police wouldn't let him get close. So he returned to his house and looked out his bathroom window and saw the victim.

Green said he's lived in his home for about 40 years, but the violence is causing him to want to move away.

"I thought things were getting better, but I guess it ain't," he said.

Delaware's largest city, so far this year, has experienced the fewest number of gun-related homicides since 2011, according to The News Journal's shooting database. At this time last year, 23 people had been fatally shot in Wilmington – 2017 ended with a record-breaking number of shootings and homicides.

Wilmington officers were dispatched about 1 a.m. to the 200 block of Van Buren Street following complaints of shots fired. Arriving officers found Chapman in the 1100 block of Conrad Street suffering from multiple gunshot wounds.